St. Croix will be offering Legend Elites this year. Some of the Forum's sponsors have a few to evaluate. Nice rods but with previously frowned upon (by St. Croix) upscale pricing. I guess a change in "Why pay more" will be forthcoming!

reminds me of a certain famous reel company that started making saltwater fly rods with the shtick that they specialized in saltwater rods only, and didn't mess with trout weights and dilute their efforts ... until a year later when they introduced trout rods..

Don't count 'em out! St. Croix makes some very good "entry-level" rods, and some nice rods approach high end. I would guess that they really did their homework on this offering. Try it first - then complain, if any complaints are due!
BobK

The one I tried wasn't so great. I'm sure that the others will be much better.
St.C's rods have always been good for the money, but I have never cast one that surpassed a premium rod(not counting for the duds that exist in everyones lines).
Would you buy a Titanium Huffy if you were looking for "the best" bike? Probably not, unless Huffy changed their marketing strategy. But then they wouldn't be Huffy any more. I wonder what St.Croix will turn into.
They've hired some big names like Bob Popovics and Bob Clouser. They've introduced some premium priced rods. Just like Sage, Winston and Scott et all. They had such a good thing going with their nitch marketing. I wish them luck.

Sounds like they're following Redington's lead - first the Nano Titanium, then Nanao Quartz not to mention a line of high-spec clothing and accessories. Building a brand is a long hard struggle but I've always been impressed with Redington. It will be interesting to see if St. Croix can match or surpass them.

Can't wait to try the new rods at the shows - not that I don't already have enough 9ft 9wts to open a small flyshop

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